


Soul Keeper

by loveliss9



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 09:59:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10242098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveliss9/pseuds/loveliss9
Summary: The rule of soul collecting is that you're not to get attached to the souls you take, but Nayeon broke that rule a long time ago.Pairing: Minayeon (with side NaMo)





	

  _"All that I am, all that I ever was, is here in your perfect eyes. They're all I can see."_

-/-/-/-

For as long as Nayeon could remember, her family ran an emporium filled with souls. Lost souls, bright souls, dark souls, young and old, the emporium had it all.

Soul mongering, was what they called it.

Day in and day out there would be people dropping in the store to purchase souls. Nayeon was fifteen when it became her job to scour the streets and look for stray souls that could fetch a penny or two.

Nayeon didn’t know what people did with the souls – and she didn’t want to find out – but she knew that the younger and purer souls were in higher demand than the ones that led long tragic lives paved with scars. Some people simply collected souls, wearing them like pieces of jewellery to show off their wealth. She figured the brighter souls were more attractive that way.

Nayeon learned that all souls carried a stringed bracelet, and if you tied the bracelet to your wrist the soul would be tethered to you until you took it off. That was how Nayeon brought souls home with her, and how collectors showed off their wealth with the amount of soul bracelets they had on their arm.

Nayeon didn’t believe in the morality of what her parents did, but she learned not to question it when her father gave her a black eye the first time she spoke up against him.

“Everyone needs a way to make a living and this is our way,” he said with apathy, “You’ll never survive in life if you’re always thinking about right and wrong.”

-/-/-/-

When Nayeon wasn’t looking for souls, there was a place she found herself often gravitating towards. A dingy club downtown. She didn’t know how she found it or why she kept returning there. She hated the blaring music and the strobe lights that disoriented her. But sometimes it was all she needed for an escape from reality. And the way a certain girl named Momo always found her and wrapped her arms around her neck on the dance floor crumbled her resolve of staying away. Nayeon found herself drawn to the girl with blonde dyed hair and a free spirit that couldn’t be confined.

-/-/-/-

When Nayeon was sixteen, she met a soul named Mina.

Mina had died from a respiratory illness in a hospital ward. She didn’t have any relatives and the only people who ever visited her were the nuns from the orphanage she grew up in. She never had a strong immune system and this time her illness had rendered her bedridden for weeks before she perished to the disease. Her lonely soul wandered aimlessly, bound to the living world but not yet ready to pass to the afterlife. Her soul wandered in the ward for days until Nayeon found her.

“Hi. My name is Nayeon.”

“Hi Nayeon, I’m Mina,” said the soul, “At least that’s what they used to call me.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mina.”

Nayeon offered to let Mina come with her, and Mina happily agreed, giving Nayeon a red bracelet which would tie herself to the human girl.

As Nayeon began to tie the bracelet around her wrist, she hesitated for a moment. She thought about the previous souls she brought back to the store to be sold to strangers and felt guilty for their fate.

“Mina, are you sure you want to come with me?” she asked the soul, “I’m…not a good person. And the place where we’re going…You might be sold off to a stranger. That’s the kind of business my family is in.”

But Mina just shook her head.

“I don’t mind. I want to stay with you. You feel warm to me.”

Nayeon smiled sadly and with a tug at her heart, she fastened the bracelet and tied Mina’s soul to her, and brought her home.

-/-/-/-

Midnight flings were just midnight flings. A temporary release from the stresses of the day and the loneliness of the night.

The high was temporary.

And Momo was temporary.

Because Momo wasn’t hers. And Nayeon realized that the very second night she came back to the club to find Momo with her arms wrapped around the neck of a different girl.

Nayeon hated that she couldn’t stay away, because temporary was still better than nothing. Temporary was better than lonely. So the next time Momo found her under the strobe lights and wrapped her slender arms around her, Nayeon didn’t push her away.

And she let Momo kiss her.

She let her do more than that.

 

* * *

 

  _In the business of soul mongering, the rule was that you don’t get attached to the souls you collect._

-/-/-/-

Nayeon recounted the many stray souls she had found and brought back to the store over the years.

There was a soul named Jeongyeon whom Nayeon found while strolling the graveyard one day. She must have led an exciting life because her soul was bold and loud and had a peculiar sense of humor.

Dahyun and Chaeyoung were sisters who were inseparable, even in death. Dahyun was a boisterous spirit while Chaeyoung was more pensive and often stuck in her own world of thoughts. But they complemented each other. Nayeon found them together in the alleys and she hoped that if they were sold they would be sold together.

Tzuyu was a shy girl with a beautiful soul, and Nayeon was sure that if she reincarnated her beauty would have followed her into the next life.

There were all kinds of stray souls who couldn’t move on from the living world for different reasons. Nayeon liked hearing about the stories of their lives. It kept her from feeling alone.

But they never stayed for long.

Jeongyeon was eventually sold to a soul collector. Dahyun and Chaeyoung were bought by a haggard looking woman with hollow cheekbones. Tzuyu left with a man with a vintage tobacco pipe and a glass eye.

-/-/-/-

Most late nights when Nayeon couldn’t fall asleep she would stay up talking to Mina, who stayed by her side and kept her company.

“What was your life like?” Nayeon asked in the dark, curled up in bed. “Was it happy?”

“I don’t really remember,” said Mina, and she thought about it for a moment. “When you die, all your memories kind of just fade away. When I try to look back, all I can see are these blurry patches, like photographs out of focus, and I think maybe they’re of my life.”

Mina paused, as if she was trying to recall the blurry photographs in her mind.

“There’s a lot of colorful ones at first, but after that it’s all patches of gray. And they feel…sad. They feel lonely.”

Nayeon listened as Mina tried to remember faded memories.

“I think maybe…I’d been alone for a long time.”

Nayeon shifted to her side, facing Mina. “Then we’re the same, aren’t we?”

-/-/-/-

Nayeon dragged her feet down the snowy streets that led to her house. A decrepit home in a decrepit town.

It was the third day that she would come home empty-handed. Her father met her with a backhanded slap, reminding her of the state they were in now that they were in the middle of a nationwide recession.

He glowered at her with clenched fists. Her mother continued reading the newspaper obituaries behind them while sipping her tea.

Nayeon went back to look for Momo that night, only find her in the lap of a different girl. Momo saw her from afar, and sent her a wink. Nayeon turned away.  

-/-/-/-

The days crept on slowly.

Something about Mina made Nayeon feel at ease.

Mina, who comforted her loneliness, made her laugh, and kissed her cheek when Nayeon spilled all her anxiety and worries to her. She filled an emptiness in Nayeon in a way she grew to like. Mina was like a solace, and it felt wholesome somehow.

And as the years went by, after Nayeon had taken many souls and tied many bracelets, Mina’s crimson red bracelet was the only one that never left her wrist.

Customers who came by the store wanted to buy Mina’s soul because it had a peculiar shine to it unlike others. Various offers were made but turned down. No one could offer a price high enough that matched what Nayeon’s father sought.

Nayeon was glad because it meant she could keep Mina by her side.

-/-/-/-

Nayeon had asked Mina if she would prefer to be set free, to go to the afterlife or reincarnate or do whatever souls do after death. Wouldn’t it be better than lingering in this place, not knowing when someone would come to take her away? To Nayeon, anywhere else was better than here. But Mina liked to stay. She wanted to stay with Nayeon, and she didn’t want to see her get hurt.

“Hey, I’m okay. It doesn’t hurt that much when they hit me anymore.”

“But it hurts me.”

Mina looked at her with sad eyes and Nayeon saw herself reflected in them.

-/-/-/-

A teenage boy came to the store with his parents, all arrogance and ignorance as if all he ever knew in life was instant gratification. He looked Mina up and down and made a snide comment about how she’d make a swell decoration in his bedroom. Nayeon punched him between the eyes and gave him what was probably the first bloody nose of his life. She promptly earned twenty lashings from her mother that night.

“You didn’t have to punch him,” said Mina softly as she tended to one of the cuts on Nayeon’s arm.

“He deserved it.” She winced as Mina dabbed the cut with an alcohol swab. “No one talks to you that way.”

Mina applied a gauze patch over the wound and placed a kiss to Nayeon’s shoulder.

-/-/-/-

Momo was temporary.

Nayeon was reminded of that over and over. But she didn’t know why she couldn’t stay away. Was it infatuation? Was it just a fleeting rush, a momentary escape? Nayeon didn’t know anymore.

She couldn’t remember what triggered her to come back to the club, but she found herself in a corner of the room with Momo’s fingers in her hair and lips pressed sloppily against hers. The smell of alcohol on her breath was heavy and Nayeon knew it was all meaningless, but she pushed the thoughts away and let herself get lost in the moment because this was how things have always been. There was no reason for it to be any different this time.

But for the first time something tugged in Nayeon saying it wasn’t what she wanted.

-/-/-/-

“I want to run away from here,” Nayeon said as she lay in bed one day, staring up at the ceiling.

Nayeon was sick of the shop, sick of soul mongering, and sick of strobe lights.

“I’ll build an ark, flood this place and sail far away from here.”

Mina brushed at the wispy strands of hair that fell on Nayeon’s forehead.

“Do you want me to come with you?”

Nayeon turned to look at Mina curled on her side next to her. The glow of the moonlight bounced off her pale skin, making her look almost angelic.

Nayeon’s lips pulled up at the corner.

“Stay with me.”

Nayeon interlaced their fingers together, as she often did. She was just barely able to feel the trace of Mina’s cold skin, as if she was always on the verge of fading away. But whereas to other people Mina was intangible to the touch, Nayeon could feel her as long as she wore her bracelet. Not completely, but just enough.

Mina’s soul was cold, but with her hand in hers, Nayeon felt warm inside.

-/-/-/-

Nayeon didn’t know when she started frequenting the club less and less, or when Momo’s lips and Momo’s touch were no longer things she craved. But at some point, Nayeon stopped chasing temporary.

Because maybe a bandaid and a kiss on the wound soothed the ache more than strobe lights, alcohol, and midnight flings. And maybe at some point Nayeon realized she didn’t need temporary when she already had a constant.

 

* * *

 

 The rule of soul mongering was that you don’t get attached to the souls you collect, but Nayeon broke that rule a long time ago. She didn’t care.

-/-/-/-

Nayeon turned to the side to see Mina lying beside her, hands folded beneath her head. Her eyes fluttered open to meet Nayeon’s. There was a soft sadness in them, with a mix of emotions that Nayeon couldn’t read.

“What are you thinking about?”

Nayeon watched as Mina’s eyes searched her.

“How I wish I could stay here forever,” said Mina in a soft voice.

Nayeon had looked into those same eyes for so long now she had memorized every detail of them. But somehow at this moment she found it hard to tear away. Mina reached out her hand along the mattress, and as if by instinct, Nayeon’s hand moved on its own and twined their fingers together.

“I want to always stay by your side,” Mina whispered.

Hearing her unsteady voice, something tugged in Nayeon. The same tug as the day she’d met Mina and tied her bracelet on. The tug that was ever present each time she looked into those eyes. Only now it was stronger than ever, and Nayeon felt like something within her was tipping over. Nayeon felt unspoken words dancing on her tongue, as if there was something she wanted to say, but she didn’t know what.

“Mina, I…”

She felt her heartbeat quicken. It was tipping over.

Then Mina leaned in, grazed her cheek softly, and kissed her. Gently, briefly. For the first time, and in a way she hadn’t been kissed before.

And suddenly the atmosphere aligned.

Everything fell in place, as if all at once Nayeon realized the unspoken feelings she had all along. It was only ever Mina. Her heart never longed for Momo like this, and her heart was beating so fast now against her rib cage it may as well have been beating for two.

And when Mina pulled back and allowed a cold air to fill the empty space between them, an intense longing ignited in every fiber of Nayeon’s body, one that had always been there but she never realized until now.

So Nayeon pulled Mina in again, pressing her lips against hers.

And for the first time, everything felt right.

_“Stay with me now.”_

 

* * *

 

The first time the gaunt looking man came into the store Nayeon had been dusting the aisles in a corner of the store. Through the shelves, she watched as her father interacted with the man. His angular cheeks looked hollow and his sunken eye sockets made him look like the embodiment of death itself. Nayeon didn’t miss what looked like hundreds of bracelets tied to his arm. She wondered if possessing so many dead souls was what drained the very life out of him.

Then he turned and looked directly at her. The sudden eye contact made the hair on the back of her neck stand rigid. She quickly turned around and slid behind another aisle out of his view. The ominous look in his glassy eyes was something Nayeon couldn’t get out of her mind. 

The gaunt man returned several more times after that. Each time he stayed to browse carefully but he never left with a soul. Nayeon tried to avoid him whenever he was here, and more so she tried to keep Mina out of his sight, but the brightness of her soul caught his attention. There was a sinister presence about him. Nayeon didn’t like the way he looked at her.

-/-/-/-

When the gaunt man returned the next time, he made an offer for Mina’s soul, ten times more than the highest offer ever made. It was an offer Nayeon knew her father wouldn’t refuse.

Nayeon's breath hitched when she heard the conversation and she rushed to Mina. They didn’t have much time left.

“Hurry, Mina. You can't stay here. You have to go, now.”

But Mina shook her head. “I don't want to leave you alone,” she said, knowing the harm that would come to Nayeon if she left.

“I’ll be okay. I’ll come find you, I…”

Suddenly, the door to her bedroom burst open and her father barged in, demanding for Nayeon to untie the bracelet and give Mina’s soul over to him. When Nayeon adamantly refused, he tried to forcefully pry it from her. In the struggle, the knuckles of his fist struck down on her –hard – and she crashed to the floor. She tried to shake it off, and she could see Mina rushing to her side, but the world was swirling and gravity seemed to be working against her by the second.

The last thing Nayeon remembered before everything faded to black was desperately trying to hold on to the red bracelet that her father pried from her wrist.

-/-/-/-

Nayeon awoke in a daze, her side of her head throbbing in ache. As she lifted her hand to her head, the unfamiliar lack of weight on her wrist startled her. Then all at once the realization hit her.

Mina was gone.

Taken.

Nayeon ran into the street, calling Mina’s name.

_“Mina!!”_

But there was no answer.

And Nayeon flipped the world upside down looking for Mina. She ran to the oceans, to the woods, to every corner of every alley looking for Mina, but there was no trace of the girl who had been everything to her.

 

* * *

 

Time passed, and one day, in the midst of a blizzard, Nayeon caught a glimpse of a gaunt man. Angular cheekbones. Hundreds of soul bracelets tied to his arm. There was no mistaking it. Nayeon saw him from afar as he trekked into the snowy distance, heading up the trail of a mountain.

Adrenaline rushing, Nayeon began to run.

“Hey, stop!” she called out to him, but her voice didn’t reach him.

She followed him up the mountain, into the snowy woods. Pushing through the dead branches, she hurried forward. The storm seemed to grow angrier as it relentlessly pelted snow downwards, obstructing Nayeon’s view. She turned a bend, then another, and then in a split second – she lost sight of him.

Which way did he go? Left? No. Right?

Breathless, Nayeon continued forward blindly navigating through the snowy woods trying to find the gaunt man again. She couldn’t see her way _._ And even when the blizzard grew heavy enough that everything turned white in front of her, Nayeon continued running forward, until suddenly the ground disappeared before her feet and before she knew it she was tumbling down a steep hill.

She kept falling downwards, and downwards, and then--

_Snap._

She reached the bottom, where her knee landed on a jagged piece of rock and Nayeon felt something crack. She hissed, and then she tried to stand but a sharp pain shot up her right leg and she fell forward into the snow, unable to get up again this time. Helpless, she laid in place hoping the pain would subside. But soon enough she could no longer feel her frostbitten feet. The snow began to pile on her. It was the end of the line.

Nayeon felt the last of her strength leave her.

It was so cold. And she was tired. So tired.

Gradually she felt her eyelids getting heavier and heavier. Sleep had never been more inviting than now.

In the far distance, she could barely make out the faint outline of two figures. She couldn’t tell if they were walking towards her or away from her, or if they were calling to her. Her vision blurred, and then she fell into a deep sleep.

-/-/-/-

Nayeon heard a voice. It sounded muffled and far away. Maybe it was calling her name?

She felt her consciousness slowly returning, but her eyelids were heavy as she struggled to open them. The last thing she remembered was trying to stay awake in the snow. It was cold now still, but a different kind of cold. Like it was radiating from within her.  

She opened her eyes, but it was so bright and she struggled to see in front of her.

“Nayeon!”

It was a familiar voice. Nayeon swivelled around, and immediately a body lunged into her and she was pulled into the warmest hug she’s ever felt.

“ _I missed you_.”

Nayeon’s heart caught in her throat.

“M-Mina?”

Tears brimmed in her eyes as she pulled back and saw Mina standing there right in front of her, with her bright smile and shimmering eyes, looking exactly how Nayeon remembered her.

Nayeon blinked away the tears. “Am I dreaming, Mina? Are you really here?”

Mina’s lips curved into a smile. “I’m here. I’m with you.”

Nayeon wrapped her arms around Mina again, wishing this wasn’t a surreal dream. It took everything in her to croak out, _“I missed you more than anything.”_

It was only then that Nayeon realized that she could feel Mina’s touch. Completely. And unlike before, Mina’s touch was warm. As if filled with life.

“Mina, are you--are you alive?”

Mina looked at Nayeon with soft eyes. Then she shook her head and smiled sadly. Nayeon was confused, but it was then that she saw a figure coming into view nearby them. The gaunt man.

“It’s you…!” she gasped, “You’re…”

He was dressed in a white cloak, holding what looked like a long scythe.

And something in her told her she was looking at the angel of death, who looked back at her wordlessly but with a telling gaze.

A realization washed over her.

“Am I…dead?” she whispered.

Slowly, he nodded and pointed his scythe to the direction behind her. Nayeon didn’t know what to expect when she looked behind her and saw her own body lying limp in the snow, right where she had fallen asleep earlier. Nayeon shivered. So this was it then. Death had come for her. She hadn't just fallen asleep; she had passed away.

And it should have been a grim realization, she thought, but it didn’t feel anything like she anticipated death to be. There was no fear, no sorrow, no gaping emptiness. Nayeon felt only a calm peace come over her, a kind of serenity she never felt before. She wasn’t afraid. Life had given her nothing, but in death she had everything to gain.

And then she looked into those gaunt eyes, and it suddenly made sense to her why the angel of death visited the store only to collect the bright souls, why the others were forsaken – because only the souls who were at peace could move on to the afterlife and truly leave this world behind.

She understood it now, feeling lighter as she let her dark memories of life fade away one away one by one.

“I felt it, when your soul was about to detach,” said Mina, taking Nayeon’s hand in hers. “He said you would pass soon. I wanted to come see you as soon as I could. I didn’t want you to be lonely when you woke up."

Nayeon smiled and tucked a stray strand of hair behind Mina’s ear. She was sure now that there was nothing for her to leave behind in the living world, because everything that mattered to her was right here with her, holding her hand.

“Mina, I…I don’t know how to say what you mean to me.”

She felt Mina interlace their fingers together, as they always used to do.

“Just say you’ll stay with me.”

Nayeon couldn’t help but grin.

“I’ve only ever been yours.”

She then eased in and pressed her lips against Mina’s, as if to seal an unspoken promise, allowing her warmth to become her own. She felt Mina smile into the kiss and return it all the more. This was where they belonged, where the world aligned, and if Nayeon could help it then she would have stayed in that moment with Mina forever. But fate was calling, and it was time to go.

_I love you. I always have._

_Let’s sail away now._

Together, the two souls followed the angel of death to their fated destination. Hand in hand, bound by a thin but unbreakable red string.

Soulmates.

Not life nor death could take that away from them.

 

 

_End._

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. I was tempted to end this in angst but minayeon is such a tragic ship these days I couldn't do it. Please leave comments because this was the first fic I've ever written and I want to know what you think <3


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